Starting Over
by northnsouth
Summary: After leaving the banks of the Mississippi in order to find a more stable life for his younger siblings, Beau Wayne comes in contact with Rae Kelly, who teaches him the ropes of the Big Apple and how to survive it.
1. Prologue

She had a bad habit of doing that- running off without as much as a whisper to where she was rushing off to. I guess I couldn't blame her. After all, she was three years old, after all. Not like she ever grew out of the habit, but, I'm getting ahead of myself, and at the time I barely had enough wits about me to walk straight, let alone think ahead of time. Any child running off is enough to give their loved ones a heart attack, but a toddler girl in the midst of a new and unforgiving city? Before I could even yell out her name for the first time, I felt as if I would black out in the filthy Brooklyn alley we'd taken refuge in.

We weren't necessarily made for this city, and I don't think I, for one, ever adjusted entirely. I was raised in Natchez, a rural town on the banks of the Mississippi, though might as well have been a different country entirely. I couldn't think half as fast as the natives spoke, and the language, though still English, sounded Greek to me. I had been able to look out of my window and see straight to the horizon, our farm stretching out as far as the eye could see. Now? Well, my eyesight stopped at the skyscrapers towering in front of me, blocking sight of, not only my baby sister, but everything short of the sun.

I caught myself occasionally asking myself why I even left. What made me think I could stand the evils of the big city? Then the voice inside my head whispered casually that it was a lesser evil than back home. I was raised, sure, but not properly. I was the oldest child of Porter Wayne and his doting, though ever mistreated, Cosette. Her purpose was to produce children, our purpose was to work the fields or clean house, and we were all to keep our eyes down and mouth shut. If not, there was hell to pay. I can still feel the lashes in my back from his anger when I spoke out of turn, looked the wrong way…breathed too sharply. If he could only see me now…all of us.

There had been nine of us, fourteen years between myself and little Virginia, who was now in the process of giving me a stroke at the age of seventeen. The remaining seven of us ran through the streets, calling her name frantically. Yes, seven…Georgia never made it past the river banks. She was born small, her lungs too weak for even country air, so the good Lord only knows what the New York smoke would have done to them. I suppose that's why we took North's newborn daughter as a gift, though I'm sure my younger sister didn't see it that way at first. A happy accident out of evil deeds came from the second born Wayne, the infant now clinging to her mother's blouse as we scoured the streets.

Nothing came of our yelling, or even little Jackson's tugging on random people, asking if they had seen a girl that looked like him, but no where near as cute. Leave it to a four year old to bring humor to a desperate situation. However, as the first day past, any humor seemed to pass with it, and as day three approached I was in sheer desolation. My sister, my youngest sister, was missing in a concrete jungle, and we were all huddled, starved and anxious, without any idea as to her whereabouts. Needless to say, I doubted my hopes for a new life in a new city.

I hate to admit it, but I had nearly given up hope until I heard a tiny voice only feet away from our alley refuge. Was I hearing things? After the pain in my heart and whispers in my head, it didn't feel too far fetched an idea to be teasing myself. However, within a moment, I heard it once more, getting closer. There she was, my Ginny. Getting up so fast, I caused the huddled mass of sleeping siblings beside me to tumble, as I ran to her and lifted the child in my arms without a word. At this point, I didn't even trust myself to breathe, let alone speak. The others' voices seemed to blur together as I gripped her to me, the toddler surely confused, if not a bit frightened, but it didn't matter a lick to me.

"Virginia Rose Wayne!" I finally admonished once my head stopped swimming, putting the girl down long enough to swat her seat firmly for terrifying me within an inch of my life. As her eyes welled and her lip began to tremble, my heart melted and, despite the horror she had put me through, I had to lift her in my arms once more. My baby girl was back, and at the moment, I was too relieved to even be disappointed, let alone angry.

"Ginny! Don't run off again!" Rae Kelly yelled as she chased after the toddler. She had found the girl three days before and had been chasing her ever since. The little girl had spent a great deal of time babbling about "her beau", or at least that's what Rae thought the girl said. Rae rounded the corner into the alley and stopped short when she saw the huddled mass of children. As Ginny toddled toward the group, the young man in the middle stood. He was taller than anyone Rae had ever seen before and she stood there unable to keep herself from staring at him as he embraced the toddler.

She bit her lip when he gave the girl a swat. How many times had Cap done the same thing to her? But Cap had loved her. It was evident to her when he had cuddled her after a spanking, the way he let her crawl into bed with him after a nightmare, the way he sang to her as he rocked her to sleep even though he didn't like to sing. It showed in the way he kissed her bumps and scraps and cared for her even though she wasn't his own. Would this giant do the same thing to the toddler she had been caring for the last three days? She breathed a sigh of relief when he lifted her into his arms again. She could be mistaken, but were those tears in his eyes?

I never liked to admit I had cried to myself, let alone be seen with welled eyes in front of a woman. However, I was unable to help myself, my little sister showing up without so much as a scratch or hair plucked from her head seemed to blind me to anything and everything around me. Only after I had sufficiently squeezed Ginny did I notice the woman standing merely three feet from me, her gray eyes quickly looking away from my own. Between the knowledge that this woman standing before me had cared for my baby sister, and the look on her face, her auburn hair falling in front of her eyes, any feelings of unease dissipated.

She couldn't put a finger on what it was, but something about the way this man was looking at her gave her a funny feeling. Not a bad funny, just...well...it was something she had never felt before. "Well...it looks like she belongs to you, so...I'll be leaving now..." she said, turning to leave them alone.

As she turned to leave, I quickly stepped in front of her, Ginny still wrapped in my arms. "Don't leave…let me repay you somehow." Though, even today, I have no idea how I could have repaid her without as much as a penny to my name.

"You don't even have a place to stay. I don't need repayment," she replied. My heart dropped slightly. After all, a man has no desire to be reminded of his desolate state, let alone the fact that he's got his siblings in the same mess.

Building myself up, my dignity bruised but not forgotten, I tried once more. I needed to set an example for the little ones. After all, being an example was almost all I had left. "There has to be something I can do for you," I offered, unconsciously gripping my sister tighter to me still.

"I have everything that I need." Well, I didn't. I wanted to keep her there, to somehow thank her for what she had done for me, for all of us, but I opened and closed my mouth like a gaping fool without any idea as to what to give her or even what to say. Ana, my little saving grace, stood below and tugged at my shirt, looking at me and then quietly at the sweet faced stranger and back at me. She had a quiet way about her, little Ana, but could say worlds with her eyes in a moment. I had completely forgotten. Bad habit- I could be unknowingly rude when I was too stunned to speak. Then again, if one is too stunned to speak, then how can someone introduce anyone? Point and nod?

I suppose she noticed the way I was grasping inwardly for something to say, or even trying to remember how to speak, as she added, "Someone once took care of me and kept me off the streets. I did the same thing for Ginny, so I can't really accept any repayment," a bit formally.

"Well, you know Ginny, this is Jackson, Ana, Johnny, Carrie, Lee, North with Callie, and I'm Beau," I finally said, introducing us, going from the baby to, well, me, the oldest as it seemed easy enough without pointing at them. The girls smiled and the boys nodded politely, remembering their manners despite their current situation. I guess I was doing something right, or they still remembered what our mother instilled in us before she passed away. At long last, I seemed to regain some of my, well, confidence and added, "And I'm not going anywhere or leaving you alone until I repay you somehow."

"My name is Rae...and I know how to disappear on the streets, so you could hardly follow me home," she said smartly, looking me hard in the eyes. She didn't seem impressed, and I, to be honest, didn't care. She found my sister, she kept her safe, and she was standing there with her hair over her face looking tougher than half the men back home, and smarter than the other half. I had to pay her back, or I had to see her again. Two could play it that game, I decided.

"Maybe not, but I have four little siblings under the age of ten, so I have experience in finding people, no matter how far they've gone. I just haven't gotten used to this city yet, but give it time and I would have found them all in every nook and cranny on this island, so finding you shouldn't be a problem."

I had expected her to reply, but not necessarily to snort at me. "Why don't you try to find your family a place to live instead of following me around...?" She had a point, after all. Then again, so did I. How can I find a place when I don't even know where to go, where to work, and no one will give me a chance sounding like, well, the Southern boy I am?

"Easier said than done, Miss Rae, but I'm trying," I said honestly. It had been true enough. We slept in the safest alley I could find (I know that's a laugh, but it was by the police station) and each day would go through the neighborhood, looking for tenements, for a job, for anything short of a suitcase with money in it.

She hesitated for a long moment, before sighing and saying in return, "I may know of a place...it's small, but it has three bedrooms..." Three bedrooms? It could have been a tin can and I would have made it work. There was a problem, however.

"I don't have a job…I don't have any money. No one wants to hire me," I told her, figuring keeping it from her out of pride was moot. She knew I lived on the street, she knew my siblings and I were starving, and she had to know I was hanging by a thread after what happened to Ginny. False pretenses were off.

I watched her shift her weight, seeming to drop a bit of the attitude she had (and would always have, but that's beside the point), informing me softly, ""The landlady is old...she needs a lot of help." I could help. If I weren't named after a Confederate general, I'm sure my middle name would have been Help. I looked over my siblings, their faces dirty, their bellies touching their backbones in hunger, and I conceded with a nod. I could do almost anything right now for a place to stay, for a place to let them rest their heads at night instead of in this darkened alley. Looking away from them, I agreed to go with her, and while I had gotten some of my way by being able to see her more, it seemed I now had even more to repay her for.


	2. Adventures in Babysitting

I can't believe I offered to help them. I told myself when I left home four years ago that I was going to mind my own business. That I wasn't going to let myself get involved in the lives of anyone. Now here I was walking down the street with this...this southern giant who had a mob of kids waiting for him back in the alley and I had offered to help them find a place to stay.

Now I just had to keep him from finding out that I lived in the same building I had told him about. The last thing I needed was for these people to get attached. Last time that happened I was the one who ended up hurt when the man who raised me left and never came back. I would just have to make sure the landlady knew not to tell any of them which flat was mine. She owed me since I was bringing her some new tenents that would also help out with the chores around the place. My landlady was the only one I allowed to get close, but that was only because I had needed a woman to talk to a few years ago and she was there.

"If you're looking for a job you should try the docks, the train station or the stockyard. You and...Lee...should both be able to find jobs with your height and strength..." What am I saying? I will NOT help this guy anymore than I already have. Oh why did he have to start looking at her that way? She'd seen guys in the park look at their sweethearts like that. She looked up at him. "I'm helping you find a place to stay and a job...but after that I don't want to see you again, understand?"

Now he's smiling at me! I stared at him for a moment trying to find something to say. I can't think of anything, so my only option is to leave. I can tell he's following me because I can hear him whistling. How do I get myself into these things? Boy am I glad that's my building up ahead.

---

Rae moaned when she heard the knock on her door. She opened one eye and glanced at the sun shining through the window. It wasn't even ten yet...who was knocking at her door? Growling, she climbed out of her bed and sluggishly made her way toward the door. She threw open the door and made a face. Beauregard Wayne stood in the hall, grinning at her. "What do you want?"

"I come in peace," he said, unable to keep the amusement from his voice. He held out the plate of food in his hands.

Rae stared at the plate filled with bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits and a lumpy pile of something. She snatched a piece of bacon and stuffed it in her mouth.

Beau chuckled as she grabbed another piece of bacon, this time savoring it. "Vous êtes précieux, Cheri."

She cocked her head to one side, some hair falling in her face. "Speak English, Rebel."

He leaned against her doorframe, watching her. Beau longed to reach over and push the hair from her face. "I said that you are precious. I take it you don't know any French."

"I'm Irish," she snapped, taking the last piece of bacon.

He shook his head. "You're no kitten in the mornings. If you'll let me in, I'll make you some coffee."

She looked at the plate of food and then back up at him. Hesitating a moment, she took the plate from him and padded into her flat, leaving him to follow.

Smiling, he walked into her kitchen and sat about making her coffee. A few minutes later he set a cup of coffee in front of her. He watched her eat for a moment before walking around behind her. He pulled the hair from her face and deftly braided it. "There...now you don't have to worry about getting your hair in your food."

"Thanks," she mumbled around a mouth full of scrambled eggs. "Where did you learn to braid?"

He sat across from her. "I have five little sisters, don't I?" She nodded and kept eating. Beau glanced through the doorway into the living room. Piles of books were scattered all over the room. A small pair of men's boots lay where they had been kicked off and a man's coat was thrown across the back of the overstuffed chair. He could just see her curled up in that chair buried in a book. "So...you live here alone?"

She stopped eating and followed his gaze into the living room. "Most of the time. My brother lives here when he's in town. He's in the navy. What is this stuff?" she asked, poking at the unusual lump of her plate.

"That is grits...it's a southern favorite. I don't know how my sister managed to find the ground corn here." He smiled when she wrinkled her nose. "Just try it. Older brother?" It would just be his luck to find a girl with a protective older brother.

She shook her head, still poking at the grits. "He's younger."

"You have a younger brother in the Navy?" She couldn't be old enough to have a younger brother in the navy. He could be wrong but she barely looked fourteen.

"He's fifteen...and he lied about his age," she answered.

Beau nodded. He could deal with a younger brother. "I need to ask a huge favor..."

She looked up at him. "I want to know what it is before I agree."

"Lee and I have to go down to the docks tomorrow about a job and Carrie's going to try and find a job. North promised to help Mrs. B in the mornings...so...could you possibly keep an eye on the runts tomorrow morning. Just for an hour, maybe two."

Rae stared at him. "Just how many are we talking about?"

"Johnny, Ana, Jackson, Ginny and Callie. You won't have to worry about Ana, she's an angel...and Johnny will be a big help if you have a problem."

Rae made a face at him. "It can't be too hard right?"

She had no idea how she had gotten stuck in this situation, with Beau and Lee gone to the docks, Carrie out looking for a job, and North assisting Mrs. B so that Rae was asked to baby sit the little ones. They had said it was only going to be a little while…only an hour or two. However, as she stepped into the flat, Jackson and Ginny running around chasing each other, Johnny yelling after them, Ana quietly sitting in the corner, and Callie crying in the bedroom, she soon realized even an hour was an hour too long.

"I WANTED TO BE THE COP! IT'S MY TURN TO BE THE COP! I WAS THE ROBBER LAST TIME!" raged Jackson as he chased Ginny around, his four year old mouth showing no signs of stopping. The little girl kept running, nearly running into a wall every five seconds in an attempt to avoid her livid older brother, who seemed hell bent on being the 'good guy' this time around.

Johnny continued to yell at them, Rae's headache growing with each passing syllable he shouted out, her nerves being rubbed raw. What happened to so called "Southern" manners? These kids seemed to have reached their quota for the week before she had arrived, as they continued to weave in and out of doorways, narrowly escaping walls, counters, and furniture as they attempted to get their ways.

"Stop it, damn it! You're not going to be cops or robbers, now both of you sit your asses down, you're annoying me!" Johnny raged at them, the nine year old obviously having had enough. Rae smiled inwardly at how he sounded like her friends when she was his age, only, well, minus the southern accent. Her humor turned sour, however, as another surge of pain passed through her head when the infant started crying. Would these kids ever stop?

"Could you all please stop?" Rae tried to reason with them calmly, squeezing the bridge of her nose before awkwardly lifting Callie into her arms to try and get her to stop wailing. The children, however, deafly kept going about their business, screaming like banshees and causing her head to spin. Alright, so, this wasn't fun anymore.

"IF YOU KIDS DON'T STOP THIS MINUTE, I SWEAR TO GOD OR WHATEVER IS UP THERE THAT YOUR BROTHER WON'T HAVE ANYONE LEFT TO COME HOME TO!" she screamed, obviously not helping Callie's sobs, but it stopped the other three in their tracks. They stared at her for a long moment, her gray eyes staring right back, ignoring the scared and almost forgotten Ana, now finding shelter in the corner.

Of course, with all good things, they come to an end, and the children were back to square one, running around and leaving Rae there, steamed and highly irritated, lifting Callie into her arms to see if she could at least shut one of them up. Collapsing on the couch, she waited for the others to tire themselves out. It would happen, right? Right?

Sure it could happen, but not before Beau arrived home to see three of his siblings engaged in a fight, throwing things at each other, Johnny calling the other two harsh names in an attempt to get them to shut up, not realizing he was just as bad as they were. Clearing his throat, everyone in the room looked over to him, Ginny, Johnny, and Jackson lowering their weapons.

"You!" Rae yelled before he even had the chance to open his mouth. "You…you talked me into coming to this zoo and said that it wouldn't be so bad, or something like that! You said…Oh I don't even want to go over what you said! I'm…ugh!" she finished, pushing, albeit gently, Callie into his arms and huffing right past him. Slamming the front door, she left a very stunned Beau with several very frightened children.

"You three," he started after a while, putting Callie down for a moment, "come here." He couldn't be angry with them, but, he could very well be upset. That girl they had just chased away was, well, something special, and they had just ruined…something. As the three of them slowly approached, he knelt down and stared them all sternly in the eyes. "You three know better than that, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," they muttered in unison, Ginny fidgeting, scratching her leg and shifting her weight, not liking the stern look in her oldest brother's eyes.

"I'm very disappointed. I told her you all were behaved and would obey her. I…I'm tired, and I don't have the patience right now to explain to you what you three should already know. You did wrong, and you're all to go to bed. Now."

"Without dinner?" Jackson asked, who practically ate like a horse.

"Without dinner," Beau confirmed, all three of them muttering under their breath. He knew Ginny and Jackson were young and just had to grow out of such things, but Johnny was another story, and he couldn't help but feel he should speak to him before the night was over, if not some time soon.

Listening as the bedroom doors closed, Beau went to collect Callie once more, holding his little niece to him and kissing her forehead, changing her and feeding her before lulling her back to sleep. Once the infant had quieted down, he went to see to his poor little Ana, huddled in the corner looking wide eyed and frightened.

"Come here, Sweetheart," he called gently to her, lifting the girl into his arms. She had always been like this…the yelling affecting her greatly since she was a small child. Episodes, they called it, which she simply needed to grow out of. "I'm here…no one is going to hurt you…"

Ana curled into his arms, white as a sheet, holding on to him for a long moment, her breathing barely audible, looking off in the distance. Sitting down, he coddled her for a long while, petting her hair and kissing her cheek. Finally, he looked down at her and realized she had fallen asleep, her forehead resting lightly against his shoulder.

Unbeknownst to him, Rae had stormed out of her flat in a fit of teenage rage, still muttering to herself about the "big brute" and his "little rats". Deciding she needed to take a walk before she trudged a hole through the floor, she raced down the fire escape, stopping abruptly to look through the window into the Wayne flat. Whether it be out of curiosity or simply to shoot a look of contempt at the man that had gotten her into this mess, she crossed her arms and glanced inside, before instantly dropping her shoulders. She watched as he held Ana, rubbing her back as the little girl slept on, her pigtailed braids hanging loosely, moving only slightly as she exhaled.

Suddenly, she found she was no longer angry, despite how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, with her "he thinks he's so great"s and "tries to look so perfect"s. Yeah, that wasn't working in the least. Sighing deeply, she decided to forego the walk…she didn't need it anymore.


	3. A Day at the Park

Beau had, somehow, though he wasn't sure how, convinced Rae to accompany him to the park with the little ones. He believed she was just suffering cabin fever and desperately needed a day out, and she thought, well, she wasn't sure what she thought or what she was thinking. Either way, however, she found herself sitting on the park bench, glancing at the four children as they romped around, her sharing a bench with Beau, though pointedly sitting on the far end. Sure, he wasn't so bad, but she sure as heck wasn't friendly with him. 

"Is Ana...alright?" she asked awkwardly after a while, finally acknowledging what she had witnessed several days before. After she had calmed down (as a result of her spying, but, she wasn't about to mention that) she had become concerned for the young girl and her sudden change in mood.

"She's fine...she just, well, remembers," he shrugged, before catching her confused look and sighed deeply. "She doesn't take yelling very well, and some things, some phrases or actions, even when not done in anger, make her just, well, remember..."

Rae hesitated for a long moment, unsure of whether or not she should press on or mind her manners and mind her business. Then, she remembered she lacked manners, and decided prodding a bit more wouldn't hurt. "Remembering what?"

"Back home," he replied simply, taking a long while before he decided to elaborate. "My father wasn't a soft man...voice or otherwise, and Ana was small and, to him, weak. He found it offensive or something, I don't understand how his mind worked, and he tended to go after her quite a bit." As vague as he had been, he already felt he had said too much, though, part of him didn't mind speaking to her about it. He found it oddly therapeutic to have someone his age to talk to.

Taking a deep breath, he squinted his eyes against the sun, looking toward his siblings as they played a game of tag in the distance. "Not so much until after Georgia died, though, we tended to protect Georgia a lot. She was always sick and never would have been able to take the way my father treated the rest of us, so we just...took it ourselves. When she left us, though, he turned more towards Ana and we couldn't always turn our dad's attention. See, Ana wasn't sick, she was just small, so my dad saw her as lazy. He kind of saw us each as something...I was defiant, North was loose, but that's another story, Lee was...well, nevermind."

Rae realized she was heading into touchy territory and decided, for now, to drop the subject of his father and his life down south. She could, at least, understand why. After all, she still had a bit of a problem speaking to anyone about Cap and her own childhood, and hers wasn't even all bad. She never had anyone "go after" her or speak to her harshly. Looking out toward the little ones, following his gaze and hiding a giggle as Ginny tackled Jackson before screaming that he was it.

"Not fair Ginny!" Jackson yelled back, Beau smirking and shaking his head. Hey, if it got out of hand he would step in, but, until then, they could talk it out amongst themselves.

"They're quite a handful," Rae said, remembering back when her and her friends would fight the same way, pulling and shoving each other until Cap came by and broke them up, sending them off in opposite directions in hopes that they would keep out of trouble for all of five minutes.

Chuckling, he replied, almost proudly, "Yes, they are, especially now. They're not used to being cooped up indoors, so coming to the park they just...let loose." He smiled faded somewhat as Jackson reached up at slapped Ginny in the face, screaming back at her, "NOW YOU'RE IT!"

"Really let loose," He said, though looked a great deal less entertained as he called out, "Jackson! Ginny!" waiting patiently as the little ones, still arguing and occasionally pushing each other before they stood in front of their oldest brother. "Jackson, apologize to your sister. Now," he commanded, Jackson making a face and shaking his head adamantly. "Jackson. Now," he said, pushing once more, crossing his arms and sending the boy a look.

"Aww! But Beau! She started it!" he complained loudly, Beau looking unmoved as Ginny continued to pout, her face a bit pink from the hit.

"And I'll end it at home if you'd like," Beau warned, Jackson getting the hint and quickly apologizing before booking it before Beau could decide to take him home. As Beau shook his head and opened his mouth to speak gently to Ginny, Rae giggled slightly, putting her hand over her mouth. tanding upright, he smirked in her direction and asked, amused, "What are you laughing at?" sending Ginny on her way without much more than a "Behave."

"You just remind me of someone, is all," she said after a while with a shrug, his soft blue eyes causing her to smile once more. Even his looks reminded her of Cap, the way he would scold her without a word and with the smallest smile could lighten her mood considerably.

"And who would that be?" he asked, taking a seat beside her once more, Rae noticeably eased at the idea of sharing a seat with him, whether she actually realized it or not. He crossed his arms again in much the same way he had when speaking to his siblings, however, there was an amusement to it now, as obvious when he arched his eyebrow and grinned.

"The man that raised me," she said, looking down for a moment and then toward the children, who were being given instructions on a new game from Johnny. "He could give me that same look and, well, I'll be honest, sometimes I didn't pay attention, but you just reminded me of it."

"And you remind me a little of Ginny," he said, Rae, in turn, arching her eyebrow back at him. "I've known you for all of two weeks and you're proving to be more of a handful than I ever thought possible," he finished, teasing her lightly.

"Yeah, well, trouble just found me a lot," she said innocently, her auburn hair falling in front of her face, somehow, giving her an even more impish look than before. Yeah, he was sure that was the case. About as sure as he was that Jackson and Ginny would grow wings and a halo.

"It found you, huh?" he asked her in the same we he might as his siblings, entertained at how she was adamant about her innocence despite the obvious lack of it she had.

"Well, yeah...in the form of several boys...Not like that," she finished quickly, rolling her eyes which caused him to chuckle. "See, I lived with this man...They called him Cap, and so, well, so did I, and he lived and helped run a newsboy lodging house. A lot of orphans and runaways, boys no one else seemed to want kind of ended up there, and they were my friends...and the cause for a lot of the trouble that found me."

He opened his mouth to respond before catching sight of his siblings, Johnny seemingly bossing them around and the youngest two having, temporarily, joined forces to battle the evil that was their older brother. "Speaking of trouble..." Beau started, calling out a simple, "Hey!" Johnny sighed and noticeably lowered his voice a bit, relaxing his shoulders. "They're a handful..."

"They're...not so bad. They have their good moments," she replied with a shrug, still unsure of the little mongrels. After all, these were the ones that had given her a monster sized headache only a few days before.

"They're better than what you saw, they're just, well, I think Johnny is having a hard time adjusting. He's the sixth...well, fifth of us, but he sometimes acts older than he is. He's a good kid, always has been, but I think he feels out of place here and it's getting to him. Really, what you saw of him...that's not what he's really like," Beau informed her, hoping she didn't have too bad an impression.

"And the other two? Are they-" she started, before Beau shook his head, answering her before she even had to finish.

"No, that's what they're like. Jackson and Ginny have always been a handful, and I have a feeling it's not just a phase. See, Jackson is...and Ginny is...well, they're not bad, but they're enough to make me run myself ragged," he replied with a sigh, shaking his head.

Rae laughed to herself, remembering herself at Ginny's age and how Cap would have, most likely, described her in very much the same fashion, if not word for word. Laughing a bit at the memories that came with such thoughts, she shook them off within a minute and focused on simply trying to relax...these Waynes were more trouble than they seemed.


	4. Family Circus

Sitting at the small kitchen table, Beau, the unknowing head of the household, put his tired mind to paying some bills, leaving the little ones a bit more alone and unsupervised that comfortable. Ginny stood in the room she shared with Ana and Carrie, however, she was standing on her head and, more frighteningly, was horribly bored. As Jackson stared at her, arching an eyebrow as she tried to hold her breath and stay steady for the twelfth time.

"Is you done yet?" he asked, crossing his arms and huffing impatiently, the girl sending him a look, concentrating so hard on her evil eye she forgot her balance and toppled over.

"Now I am! Your fault!" she screeched at him, pushing him and stomping out of the room and onto the fire escape to pout up a storm in freedom. Of course, like every child her age, only one emotion could control her at a time, and as the Barnum and Bailey circus poster was being painted on the side of a nearby building. "ELEPHANTS!" she squeaked, hopping inside. Yes, elephants.

"Elephants?" Jackson asked, thoroughly confused. Why would she leave the room screaming at him and come back…screaming at him? Well, that wasn't the point. The point was she had gone from angry to gleefully going off about elephants, of all things.

"Yeah! Circus! See?" she continued, grabbing him roughly by the shirt and pulling him to the window, pointing out toward the banner. "I wanna go!"

"Beau won't take us," Jackson told her realistically, knowing his brother was currently busy with little things that kept them from doing anything fun at all, let alone do something as big as go to the circus.

"But I wanna goooo!" Ginny whined terribly, her eyes starting to water as she bounced up and down in childish frustration. She carried around desperately, Jackson trying everything he could to quiet the girl down before Beau got up and fussed at him for upsetting her…like he did anything in the first place. She was the idiot that stood on her head too long and jerked her brain loose.

"Fine…we'll go, but we'll keep it a secret," he whispered to her, Ginny silencing immediately, a wide smile soon slapped on her face. Oh, this was worlds better than the game she had been playing. Monkeys and giraffes with acrobats beat holding your breath while standing on your head any day.

Grabbing a few pennies and their jackets, they stuffed their beds with pillows (even though it wasn't bed time, but they had seen Carrie do it and thought it would work any time of the day), and rushed down the fire escape.

Running down the winding streets of lower Manhattan, the young Waynes joyfully passed building after building before they realized one serious problem: they had no idea where the circus was, nor how to get there. So, technically, two serious problems, all tied into one hideous issue which caused the pair to stop in their tracks simultaneously.

"Where are we going?" Jackson asked his sister. After all, she was the one who saw the poster for it, she should be the one who knew where it was to begin with. However, Ginny was four and, being such, only memorized the fact that the banner had an elephant on it.

"I don't know…" she whimpered, biting her lip and fidgeting, twisting the hem of her dress into little knots. Great, now they could be lost and, on top of that, they'd never see the circus. Beginning to cry, Jackson rolled his eyes and did the only smart thing he could think of, which was reaching his quota for the week, at least. Taking her by the hand, he pulled her toward a street vendor. He might know…or someone around here might. Luckily, after several failed attempts, he found a vendor that not only spoke English, but pointed them in the right direction, seemingly not caring about the fact that he was giving directions to two small children without a guardian in sight.

Getting sidetracked a time or two by a doll or a train in a store window, eventually the tiny terrors reached their destination, exhausted but, at the same time, full of energy with the prospect of seeing lions, tigers, and bears.

"Oh my!" Ginny squeaked as she gazed at the elephants entering the large tent, several of the 'freaks' sitting in the back playing cards before the start of the evening show.

"Got any queens?" the bearded woman asked as an acrobat twirled and flipped behind her in her own little rehearsal.

"A pair…but the Siamese twins are still in front of the damn mirror," the 'lizard' man countered in what he saw as a brilliant joke, the bearded woman simply rolling her eyes and grabbing from the deck. Jackson, however, found it hilarious, and tried desperately to stifle his giggles. This didn't seem to be too big a problem when a large hand clapped down on each of their shoulders, Jackson and Ginny's eyes widening considerably.

"And what are you two doing?" came a gruff voice, the siblings turning to see a large, navy man with a gray mustache. Shaking their heads a few times, they soon realized the man that loomed over them wasn't with the circus but, instead, was a star member of the police force, and not very pleased with the pair of them, at that.

"Ummm…we were…Oh, look, a bear!" Jackson tried before attempting to run off, grabbing Ginny before the officer rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh at the kid.

"Nice try…Want to tell me where you live?" the man asked, kneeling down to look the two children in the eyes, Ginny's eyes already wet with tears, Jackson shifting nervously.

"Umm…we're orphans. We don't live nowhere," he said, hoping that was good enough for the man to leave them alone. On the contrary, it gave the seasoned officer an idea. He had dealt with troublemakers before, so dealing with these two precocious tots wasn't going to be an issue.

"Well, then you have two choices…the orphanage or I take you to the police station with me and we sort this all out there…"

The police station? The simple sound of it caused Ginny to burst out into sobs, yelling incoherently about Beau killing them and how she'd never see the light of day for a hundred years and by then all monkeys on the world would probably be dead. Waiting for her crying to slow to the point he could talk above her, the police officer decided, now that at least she was broken, he could take them home in one piece.

"So, let's try this again…where do you live?"

"Ummm…On Henry…Some big old grey one…with some woman name Mrs. B," Jackson offered, trying his best to remember everything he could about their new abode, no longer worried about Beau seeing as he really, really didn't want to go to jail.

Sighing, the officer nodded and, taking both of them by the hand, escorted them toward their street, looking for any gray buildings that might seem familiar. After about twenty minutes down the same street, both children bounced, pointing toward their tenement. While not eager to see Beau, they were eager to get home instead of in a jail cell.

As they neared their building and, more so, as they climbed the stairs toward their flat, the two soon realized that a jail cell might be better than facing their brother, and bit their lips in anxiety as the officer knocked on the door once they pointed to it.

As Beau answered the door, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief before sending them both looks. Yep, they were probably better off in jail than here with him and that look on his face.

"I'm Officer Bailey…these yours?" he asked, pushing the children gently toward their brother, Beau crossing his arms.

"See, they look like mine, but my siblings know better than to run off without telling me and without an adult…" he said, taking them both by the arms, albeit gently. As upset, even angry, as he might be, he was never harmful toward them.

"Just…keep an eye on them. They were pretty well behaved once I got the truth out of them," he said, before adding toward Jackson and Ginny, "Keep your noses clean, alright?" at which point Jackson ran his sleeve under his nose.

"What in God's name were you two thinking?" Beau asked them hotly once the door was closed, Ginny's eyes welling up and Jackson looking down at the floor. "You two know better than that! Ginny, you…You both…" he began to stammer, before taking a deep breath. "You both scared me out of my mind. I have told you, Virginia, time and time again about running off! And you, Jackson? What were you thinking? I want the whole story, and this second!"

"I just wanna see the monkeys!" Ginny cried, rubbing her eyes, unable to say anything more than an occasional sob about another random animal. Jackson, on the other hand, had his wits about him enough to explain to Beau everything from Ginny standing on her head to right to this point. In fact, he explained so well, Beau was wondering if he was going to tell him every detail down to what color the bearded woman's beard was.

It took a long moment for Beau to respond, Ginny still sniffling considerably, Jackson shifting his weight every now and then. "You two know better. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Anything could have happened to you two! I barely go outside on my own and…we don't know this city yet and you two are parading around it without a second thought? You even knew you shouldn't have left or you wouldn't have stuffed the beds…which, by the way, it might not have been bed time, but it is for the both of you."

As the two children looked up at him, upset and surprised, he grabbed them each and swatted them several times to their seats, Jackson making a face and rushing to his room, Ginny crying anew and whimpering off to bed. Before Beau even had a minute to reflect on what just happened, Jackson, frowning considerably, poked his head out and asked, "With no dinner?"

"With no dinner. Straight to bed, and don't you get up," Beau ordered, Jackson now sniffling himself as he shuffled to his bed, Beau shaking his head and collapsing on the couch. He could have lost the two of them…anything could have happened. As he started to think about what he could possibly do to get Ginny to stop running off, he heard her sobs worsen though the door only a few feet off.

Feeling terrible, he slowly rose and knocked gently on the door, letting himself in after a moment and sitting on the edge of the bed she shared with Ana. "Ginny, baby, what were you thinking?" he asked her in a soft, gentle voice, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Monkeys and el'phants and now I'll never see 'em and I'll die with no monkeys or el'phants," she cried out, her pillow soaked with tears. "And it hurts…"

"What hurts, pumpkin?" he asked, worried about the possibility of her having gotten hurt or, an even more terrifying though, the possibility that he hurt her.

"My heart…I wanted to see the circus and now I'll die before I do!" she went on dramatically, Beau lifting her to sit on his lap and cuddle her for a moment. Poor child. As angry as he wanted to be with her, he almost understood her running off. After all, what four year old wouldn't run off to see a circus? Hell, if there had been a circus in Mississippi when he was her age, he could bet he would be there, even knowing what he would have caught from his father for it.

"Ginny, baby, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to promise to be good, alright? If you promise to be as good as gold, I'll see what I can do about the circus, but you have to behave yourself, and that means no running off," he said, but softly and sternly, the little girl nodding adamantly, her tears slowing. "Now lay down and think about what you did, and get some sleep. You had a long day and I want to make sure you don't have another one like it."

Sitting with her until she fell asleep, her thumb firmly in her mouth and her eyes closed tightly, he quietly snuck out of her room and checked on the other kids before secretly going toward his bills and any money he had. If he just…and cut back on the…yes, he could. Barely, but he could, and even take Rae along. Smiling to himself, he thought that, though she probably didn't deserve to at the moment, Ginny would see her precious circus animals. She learned her lesson, he hoped, and an event like this was something none of them had ever been exposed to. Getting things together, he planned the best way to get everyone together for one day out, one day to forget any problems and just…have fun. 


End file.
